Freesat can confirm that the BBC’s 24 live HD Olympic channels will be shown on channels 151-174, throughout the London 2012 Olympics.

The full range of live BBC Olympics coverage will be available, subscription-free on Freesat and Freesat+ customers will be able to pause, record and rewind of all the action. HD viewers will automatically receive the HD versions of the channels, whilst non HD viewers will receive the SD versions. The same numbers apply for both standard and high definition.

Viewers will also be able to access the action via the BBC red button.

The channels are expected to go live next week and Freesat hope to have a TV Guide up and running soon.

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61 Responses to “Freesat confirms channels for all the BBC Olympic action”

admin said:
Just a shame they are calling it the London Olympics, we’ve all paid for it!!!!

The Olympics were awarded to London by the IOC so it’s the correct name. Better than calling them the bore your bleep off for 4 weeks that all the tax payers in the UK paid for Olympics. Rumour has it the weather is about to improve at last so I for one will be outside enjoying it not watching TV.

Personally I don’t want the games here at all. Athletics are boring, most of the money and spending is going to London, and there’s a risk that it will leave the country further in debt.

Plus it’s a joke anyway, the organisers already admitted they can’t compete with the last games for the opening ceremony (because in the UK we’re too tight to pay for it even when the country isn’t in huge debt – look at the Millennium Fireworks and New Years fireworks, Syndey puts London to shame every year) and already, the UK is arguably a laughing stock over its security problems.

The weather is improving according to the forcast. I’m away on holiday over the Olympics, hurahhhhhhhhh, fed up with all the advertising hype, so glad to get away from it all, . Personaly I think it’s going to be s**t anway, who care’s

I’m looking forward to the Olympics now, what with all the hype building up over the last few years it’s amazing to think how quickly it’s come around! I’m disappointed Freesat haven’t capitalised on it a bit more but as we discussed over on the other thread there must be some Sky clause saying any platform can have these channels and Sky will pay for them providing they are not promoted in such a way.

Not wanting to wade in to this “who’s paid for the Olympics” debate, all I’ll add to this is that I believe, and only going off a conversation with a Londoner on holiday last year, that all London borough’s within the M25 paid a Council Tax levy on top of their rated charges for a number of years to help fund it all.

They should appear automatically, most likely on the 24th or the morning on or after the 25th for Humax users. They start BARB reporting (for viewing ratings figures) from the 25th so I guess they are due to be publicly available from the 25th and could therefore be the case freesat add them on the 24th.

Of course this is a good thing for Freesat as long as potential Freesat buyers are aware that Freesat has these channels, so far I’ve seen sky proclaiming they that the have all the BBC olympic HD channels all over the place, but far from Freesat shouting it from the roofs, many of us couldn’t even get a proper official answer about this from Freesat.
Mind you when it comes to olympic own goals, Freesat have the government to really screw things & show them how its done !
Its a shame for Freesat & a oppotunity for promotion of the platform lost, I have to wonder what deals were done because its hard to believe its down to poor management & they didn’t realise the importance of this event in relation to Freesat platform promotion, its almost like they want to keep Freesat a secret !

Neil said: I’m looking forward to the Olympics now, what with all the hype building up over the last few years it’s amazing to think how quickly it’s come around! I’m disappointed Freesat haven’t capitalised on it a bit more but as we discussed over on the other thread there must be some Sky clause saying any platform can have these channels and Sky will pay for them providing they are not promoted in such a way.Not wanting to wade in to this “who’s paid for the Olympics” debate, all I’ll add to this is that I believe, and only going off a conversation with a Londoner on holiday last year, that all London borough’s within the M25 paid a Council Tax levy on top of their rated charges for a number of years to help fund it all.

Al (Original) said: Personally I think it should have been called the UK 2012 Olympics by the organisers even if it was technically awarded to London.Apart from anything else, many venues are outside of London and around the UK – eg Football at amongst others – St Jame’s Park – Newcastle, Old Trafford Manchester, City of Coventry StadiumCycling – Box Hill – Surrey, Hadleigh Farm – EssexSailing – Weymouth and Portland, DorsetRowing – Eton DorneyPlus admin is right, we’ve all paid for it.Personally I don’t want the games here at all. Athletics are boring, most of the money and spending is going to London, and there’s a risk that it will leave the country further in debt.Plus it’s a joke anyway, the organisers already admitted they can’t compete with the last games for the opening ceremony (because in the UK we’re too tight to pay for it even when the country isn’t in huge debt – look at the Millennium Fireworks and New Years fireworks, Syndey puts London to shame every year) and already, the UK is arguably a laughing stock over its security problems.

i think you should give more channels movies sport like football and no more shopping channels or foriegn channel as i dont speak their lingo . so come on freesat put some good movie and sports channel s on because sky and virgin are winning hands down

when are we going to get some more movie channels or as sky got themQuote

when are we going to get some more movie channels or as sky got them said:
i think you should give more channels movies sport like football and no more shopping channels orforiegn channel as i dont speak their lingo . so come on freesat put some good movie and sports channel s on because sky and virgin are winning hands down

Ermmm, that is probably because they are pay-tv operators so can afford the rights to many sports events. How do you propose Freesat compete?!?!

I bought a 3D LD 58 cms tv hoping to find that the broadcast 3D will be worth watching but was disappointed by the Wimbledon experiment. However the 3D tv works well with a panasonic 3D player and is fun!

Robert said:
Does admin or anyone else know if there will be any 3D coverage of the olympics?.

Both the opening and closing ceremonies are in 3D. The 100 meters final, and a one hour highlights programme each evening will also be in 3D. If my memory serves me correctly the highlights programme starts at 11:30 pm.

when are we going to get some more movie channels or as sky got them said:
i think you should give more channels movies sport like football and no more shopping channels orforiegn channel as i dont speak their lingo . so come on freesat put some good movie and sports channel s on because sky and virgin are winning hands down

Free to air sports channels have been an unmitigated disaster area on satellite over the last 10 years. Every single attempt to get one on air has either closed down in a few months or gone encrypted..

The purchase costs for even quite minor events are very high so unless you want to see something thrilling like underwater tiddlywinks or competitive knitting on your primetime evening programmes if you want sports you pay Sky or Virgin….

admin said: Ermmm, that is probably because they are pay-tv operators so can afford the rights to many sports events. How do you propose Freesat compete?!?!

Although you’re right on that one admin, I do think there is an alternative.

I’ve often asked why the BBC don’t try to set up an Extreme Sports channel even if it only ran for limited hours per week.

(At the moment admittedly they are strapped for cash though).

However, Extreme sports don’t command the sponsorship or broadcasting rights premiums of mainstream sports and so could be bought relatively cheaply. There could even be deals to be done with the Extreme channel for some coverage.

I bet the BBC could run a whole channel for a year for the cost they currently pay for the rights to eg. a single major golfing tournament or the World Darts Championship or similar.

In terms of value for money, you have to ask what is better value a single major tournament or a whole channel of sport.

eg Ch4 can afford to carry some surfing and snowboarding events in its programme Freesports on 4.

UK TV can afford to carry the Americas Cup.

I doubt either of those channels paid much for the privilege.

Some programming such as the ASP World Tour (surfing), moto cross, base jumping, extreme white water kayaking, white water rafting, maybe even the red Bull Air Racing (ch5 had the rights last time I saw it) could be covered. Maybe even extreme sports films could be shown in between eg. BBC 4 carried the excellent Riding Giants film last year but unfortunately this kind of coverage is a rare one off.

To me its a way the BBC could address both the lack of sport and youth programming in one hit as most younger people like extreme sports. Currently there are programmes for babies and children but nothing for mid teens. As extreme sports cover teens to aged in age group its a good coverall for age appeal and it might just keep some teens off the streets at night!

21 July – The streams are already up and running on non-freesat mode on my Humax HDR. They appear as seperate HD channels but if you press the info button it says they will be available via the red button during the games.

Briefly, a week or so ago, on the “guide category” of the EPG there was a seperate category heading called “Olympics” but that isn’t there now.

There are currently running test streams. One today was showing the torch relay. Hopefully they’ll on the freesat EPG soon.

Some one asked about 3D. Infact Eurosport is transmitting over 100 hours of the Olympics in 3D mostly live on Skys 3D channel. I think that if you have a subscription that includes Eurosport HD you should be able to get it. Please check with Sky first.

The Olympic channels are now available on my Echostar HDS-600RS, but if I tune to them I get a message saying I have a weak signal. Checked with Echostar support and they suggest my LNB might need changing – something to do with some frequencies not being received by my current one. I need to check on a newer dish to see if that works.

Now the realy good news. From a quick look it seems that Sky are transmitting full 1920×1080 pixels and not the usual BBC 1440×1080. I suppose it will be too much to expect full surround sound aswell. Sky has put only 4 channels on each transponder so we should get some good bitrates aswell.

Freeview viewers will have to use the buggy new iplayer to get all these streams. It can’t even do full screen.

Freesat has really missed a trick here and should have launched a massive advertizing campaign.

Trevor Harris said:
Now the realy good news. From a quick look it seems that Sky are transmitting full 1920×1080 pixels and not the usual BBC 1440×1080. I suppose it will be too much to expect full surround sound aswell. Sky has put only 4 channels on each transponder so we should get some good bitrates aswell.
Freeview viewers will have to use the buggy new iplayer to get all these streams. It can’t even do full screen.
Freesat has really missed a trick here and should have launched a massive advertizing campaign.
The BBC really needs increase it’s HD output. Without Sky the Olympic coverage would be pretty pathetic.

BBC HD and BBC1 HD on Freesat has been 1920 for ages certainly since the 3D Wimbledon.

Following on from my previous comment below. After trying my Echostar box on another satellite dish and still not getting any joy with the Olympic channels I resorted to a Factory reset. This worked and I have all the Olympic Channels in HD. Obviously a factory reset sets all options to default and you lose scheduled recordings, but recorded programmes remain intact.

It doesn’t seem to be necessary for everyone (Echostar support were adamant theirs worked without a reset) but try a reset before contacting support.

Philip Pullen said:
The Olympic channels are now available on my Echostar HDS-600RS, but if I tune to them I get a message saying I have a weak signal. Checked with Echostar support and they suggest my LNB might need changing – something to do with some frequencies not being received by my current one. I need to check on a newer dish to see if that works.
Has anyone else got this problem?

Richard Crichton said:
The BBC have secured the rights for the next four Olympics with our money then they give them to Sky for nothing. Good plan.

It was the same with F1. They made a big song and dance about taking it off ITV saying F1 is back on the BBC where it belongs.Then 2 years into their 5 year exclusive rights deal, they gave it to Sky. Now we get 10 live races a year on the BBC!! And have to duck the news on the Sundays of the other races so as we don’t hear the result before the BBC has decided to show the highlights.

Russ said: It was the same with F1. They made a big song and dance about taking it off ITV saying F1 is back on the BBC where it belongs.Then 2 years into their 5 year exclusive rights deal, they gave it to Sky. Now we get 10 live races a year on the BBC!!And have to duck the news on the Sundays of the other races so as we don’t hear the result before the BBC has decided to show the highlights.

Losing the F1 annoyed me too, but they hardly gave it away, they couldn’t afford it so sold the rights to Sky.

For all those still wondering when/if we will get Channel 5 HD anytime soon. I asked Chennel 5 and here is their response, quote:-

“Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding Channel 5 HD.
We do not have any current plans to launch this channel on Freesat, however we are keeping the option under review for the future and your interest in seeing it made available on this platform has been noted in the Viewer Enquiries Report. This is circulated throughout the company and seen by all relevant personnel.”

Thanks for the info Richard. I was aware that they had increased to 1920 on BBC HD but they only usually leave it on for the 3D trial. In fact they have to for 3D. I will check out BBC One HD they are not in HD at the moment. Just shows I don’t watch BBC much these days.

on my Ferguson HD box I get a mixture of SD and HD versions. 1,2,3 6,8 and 9 are HD and 4,5,7 are SD etc – i rescanned – it looks like they are not updated correctly yet so show either one or the other.

I have an SD box, living in the East midlands but there are no Olympic channels in the EPG, I only have the red button. I haven’t a clue how to work freesat so do I need to update it or will the channels come soon. Thanks

I’ve got all the ‘Olympic’ channels to view, , but still cannot record them ( get the message about less than 30 seconds etc. even though my first EPG recording was supposed to be for about 5 hours – womens footie from Cardiff).

Frazer Palmer said: I bought a 3D LD 58 cms tv hoping to find that the broadcast 3D will be worth watching but was disappointed by the Wimbledon experiment. However the 3D tv works well with a panasonic 3D player and is fun!

Although I have all the 24 channels working ok the red button on ch 150 will not take me to any events on my LG LF427700 tv, if I hit ok it just kaes me back to the menu each time, Sky version works perfectly though

Anyone else got problems with these new olympic channels? My Bush freesat+ HD box gets stuck on whichever olympic channel I select – have to unplug box to switch to another channel – most frustrating. Can use info button to see what’s on by flicking through, but when I select, channel number is displayed, but picture & sound stay on originally selected channel. Have performed 3 initializations and rescans, but no change. Any comments?